Implementing Board Games

[Minty23185Fresh]

Last night I was at a friend’s house playing a new board game. Afterwards, I thought, this could easily be implemented in Fantasy Grounds, essentially, moving tokens around on a map, and some rules to manage that.

Has anyone attempted this? Or have I missed the conversation and it’s been done?

(I know, I know. There are licensing issues. Can we just set those aside for now. I’m interested in feasibility.)

[Trenloe]

Gwydion's done a couple of conversions. Here's one of them: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?53351-Rangers-of-Shadow-Deep-Free-Tabletop-Conversion

[Minty23185Fresh]

Thanks Trenloe.

[Gwydion]

Yep Minty. As trenloe said, I've done Map Maker and Roll Player. Rangers of Shadow Deep is more of a true light solo/co-op rpg but I converted that recently as well.

[Gwydion]

Oh... And here is a link to where Trenloe has posted all three conversions I've done.

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?47518-Generic-(CoreRPG-compatible)-community-modules

[superteddy57]

I've done quite a few as well, but haven't released them since most of the mechanics require cards and materials that the person would need to acquire and convert into digital assets. Gloomhaven, Mage Knight, and Catan to name a few. My pride and joy are the Sim Sport titles. I have converted these as I wanted FG to compile stats and keep track of replay seasons. It's very possible to make boardgames as long as you stick with what FG provides you and make compromises when necessary.

[Gwydion]

Yeah, Roll Player was probably the most challenging for me due to all of the various digital assets. I need to give it a real runthrough on FG sometime to see how it really plays but the author was kind enough to give me the digital assets to use.

[Minty23185Fresh]

Thanks Gwydion and superteddy57. I see I’m not out to lunch in this. I need to think a little more about actually committing time to such an endeavor.

[Andraax]

You can also look at VASSAL - that is a system specifically for online board games, and there are a bunch of module already for a number of games.

[superteddy57]

FG has some great ability to replicate some systems from boardgames. Heck, you could honestly make some of those awesome classics like Monopoly and such. I would suggest looking for the tedious items of the boardgame and try to have FG automate that tedious task. Like Gloomhaven was the deck and laying out the maps. Easy to replicate within FG.

[Minty23185Fresh]

You can also look at VASSAL.....
Holy Cow. The game I played last night is already implemented there! Another, more ancient game, that I had in mind, from the 70’s is not. Thanks.

[Minty23185Fresh]

It’s finally time to roll up my sleeves and try to tackle this. I’ve been ruminating long enough.
I hope to implement a board game from the late ‘60s titled Acquire.
Here’s an image from eBay:
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Most of board games listed so far in this thread, as near as I can tell, due to the fact I’m unfamiliar with them, seem to have a basis in RPG. Except for “Catan”.


I've done quite a few as well, …. and Catan to name a few. It's very possible to make boardgames as long as you stick with what FG provides you and make compromises when necessary.

superteddy57, if the “Catan” you mentioned is the same as the board game I’m familiar with, shown here, then it’s much like the game I hope to implement, and might mirror the work I have ahead of me.
57670

@superteddy57, did you just use the CoreRPG ruleset or did you essentially write your own? Looking at the CoreRPG, there is a lot of superfluous stuff in there, especially for non-RPG players, it might be wise to hack most of it out, i.e. a new ruleset.

[LordEntrails]

I always felt is someone was going to make a board game ruleset they should start with making a new Core Ruleset (BoardCore?) and then have child rulesets for specific games.

But, that's just me :)

[superteddy57]

@Minty23185Fresh
Yes, I used CoreRPG. With me knowing it's boundaries and limitations, I made due where I needed. Here are some examples I have currently.

American Tank Ace
57674

Fury Football
57675

Fury Baseball
57676

@LordEntrails
I do agree a more dedicated system would need to be in place to get the same foundation as we have with RPGs, but for the time being it could be done with CoreRPG.

[Minty23185Fresh]

Impressive superteddy57, thanks for sharing.

And LordEntrails, I agree, it would be ideal to have a dedicated, non-RPG, board game ruleset for this, but I not too sure I'm the one to do it. Not too sure I got the chops. I may end up with one though, by default, just by stripping things out of and renaming others in CoreRPG.

[Gwydion]

I did a few a few years ago. I did roll player and map maker adventures and released them on fg classic. Haven’t completely updated them for unity though. And I did rangers of shadow deep but that isn’t really a board game.

[Andraax]

There is already an Acquire module for Vassal...
https://vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:Acquire

[superteddy57]

Vassal certainly has a catalog I'm a huge fan of and would love to get most of those titles playable within FG. Just not a project that will rise to the top till we are ready and have a plan for that type of implementation.

[Andraax]

Vassal is designed for playing board games. Use the right tool for the job.

[Minty23185Fresh]

Vassal is designed for playing board games. Use the right tool for the job.
I tried Vassal a couple years ago, when you previously recommended it.
I was very underwhelmed.
I’ll give it another look-see.